Egil's Saga
Anonymous, ca. 1230, on EmpirE
Egil Skallagrimsson is about as unlikeable a character as you find. Subject to black rages, he committed his first murder when he was about 6, after losing a ball game, and his last when he was old and blind, keeping the hiding place of his treasure a secret by killing the slave who helped him hide it. He was also a highly respected poet. He wrote a touching lament over the death of his 2 sons, and once he bought his freedom when imprisoned by his old enemy King Eirick Bloodaxe by composing a poem in praise of the king. (Custom was that if the king kept the poem he had to free the poet, and the poem was so good Eirick couldn't resist.)
